Roundup: Touch of Color Monitor Series from Samsung. Page 3

Samsung engineers have always been by far among the best when it comes to exterior monitor design. However, they have absolutely outdone themselves in the Samsung Touch of Color aka ToC series. We are going to talk about 6 monitors from this series ranging from 19" to 26".

The touch-sensitive Power button is located on the front panel and labeled accordingly. The Power indicator highlights a small zone of the front panel right below the button (as shown in the photo above).The indicator is not very bright. In daylight it seems to be a fuzzy piece of light deep in the monitor’s case. It won’t be distractive in the evening, either. Anyway, you can turn it off completely in the monitor’s menu.

The remaining buttons are located on the right panel, and this seems to be the biggest drawback of the Touch of Color design. There are no labels on the front panel and you have to find the necessary button blindly or stand up and look behind the monitor.

The selection of buttons is the same as on other monitors from Samsung. Quick access is provided to the brightness setting, to switching the MagicBright modes (this button can be reprogrammed in the monitor’s menu), to choosing the video input to use, and to the automatic adjustment of analog connection.

Besides the buttons, you can set the monitor up using the MagicTune program. You can find it on the disc included with the monitor or download from Samsung’s website.

MagicTune is a handy but somewhat heavy tool. It may not work with some graphics cards and dual-monitor configurations. In case of such incompatibility you can try the DisplayTuner program from Nicomsoft.

The drawback of DisplayTuner is obvious. This program is developed by a third party and is not optimized for specific monitor models. Therefore it provides general settings only. You won’t find a list of color temperature modes or MagicBright technology in it. The program makes up for this drawback with its advantages such as ease of use, short start-up time, and support for profiles that can be switched through with hot buttons.

The senior and junior models of the ToC series differ in their connectors: the models with a diagonal of 22 inches and lower have analog D-Sub and digital DVI-D inputs.

The two senior modes (the 24-inch T240 and 26-inch T260) additionally have a HDMI input, analog and digital (optical S/PDIF) audio outputs, and a two-port USB hub (it is passive, so the combined load on its ports must not be higher than 500mA; it won’t be able to power an external HDD, for example).

The audio outputs are a notable feature. The HDMI interface can transfer not only video but also audio. The monitor doesn’t have speakers and cannot play the sound, but you can connect headphones or an amplifier or even a receiver with S/PDIF input to it.

Summing this section up, I should confess that the monitors of the Samsung ToC series are among the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. The company’s designers have managed to create a neat, graceful and appealing exterior without such trivial elements as chrome inserts, shining captions and blue LEDs. A ToC series monitor is attractive even when turned off, yet it does not distract your eyes from your work.

Alas, this beautiful exterior is achieved at the expense of functionality. You are limited in setting the tilt of the screen and cannot adjust its height. The controls are placed rather inconveniently, and the native stand cannot be replaced with a VESA mount. However, these problems are not very important for home users the Touch of Color series is targeted at.